1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus having a Web page providing portion, a control method therefor, and so on.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image processing apparatuses having a variety of functions, such as copying, network printing (PC printing), scanning, faxing, and document server, have recently attained widespread use. Such image processing apparatuses are called “multifunction devices”, “Multi-Function Peripherals (MFPs)”, or the like.
In recent years, some image processing apparatuses have been provided with a Web server and a Web browser.
The Web server and the Web browser are configured to work in coordination with each other, and thereby, a user interface of the image processing apparatus is provided. This enables flexible configuration of the user interface having different specifications on a client-by-client basis, and enables cost reduction in user interface development.
Incidentally, a Web browser is generally configured to display a time-out error for a case where the Web browser requests a Web page from a Web server, and no response is received from the Web server until a predetermined amount of time has elapsed since the Web browser made the request. Hereinafter, the predetermined amount of time is called a “time-out period”.
When a preset time-out period is long, the Web browser has to wait for a response from the Web server for a long period of time. On the other hand, when the preset time-out period is short, the Web browser displays time-out errors many times. Accordingly, adjusting the length of a time-out period is important in the light of configuration of a good user interface.
In general, the time-out period is fixed at a predetermined length. However, a technique has been proposed in which the time-out period is adjusted depending on a load imposed on a Web server (see Document 1, i.e., Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2005-165658).
As described in Document 1, an adjustment is so made that the time-out period has a length of time depending on a load on the Web server. Thereby, time-out errors are probably less likely to be displayed, and a client terminal does not have to wait for a response from the Web server for a long period of time.
However, if the method described in Document 1 is applied to an image processing apparatus, the foregoing advantage is not always obtained.
To be specific, it is sometimes a case where, even when a Web server provided in the image processing apparatus is not so overloaded, a Web browser displays a time-out error because no response is received from the Web server by the end of the time-out period, and an appropriate time-out period is not set in the image processing apparatus.